


Earthbound

by AngelynMoon



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Graves and Headstones, History, M/M, grief and mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 15:37:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20155966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelynMoon/pseuds/AngelynMoon
Summary: Michael leaves Earth and returns..... Eventually.





	Earthbound

Summary: It does not matter, thehy are dead now.

\----

A man sits next to an old grave, a dozen red roses across his lap as he sits and caresses the name that is carved into the worn stone. The man speaks an odd language, not an Earthly one for it is clear by the man's chosen clothing that he is not an Earthly man.

The little boy is young, curious and bored, never a good combination for any child left unsupervized as this one is. The boy wanders over to the man, the man is young or at least he appears so when the boy looks upon the man's face though the man does not acknowledge the bot, instead staring intently at the silent grave he continues speaking to. Looking at the dates upon the stone and the man's soft, intense gaze makes the boy wonder just how young or, in fact, old the man truely is.

The boy sits nearby and for a time manages to be still, but he is still young, in age not just appearances, and thus filled with energy, and so eventually the boy begins to squirm, drawing the attentions of the man with roses on his lap.

The man turns to the boy, eyes curious but annoyed, it is clear that the man has little experiences with children, by desire or default is yet unknown to the boy.

"And who are you?" The man asks, annoyance clear in his tone.

The boy shrugged, "Maxwell." 

And for the briefest moment the man's gaze softened before it crumpled and masked itself.

"And what are you doing here?" The man asked, voice only just a touch softer now.

"Mom's visiting dad." The boy told the man with another shrug.

"I meant near me." The man rolle dhis eyes, there was a touch of fondness now in his voice.

"Oh, well, you're the only other person around and I was bored." Maxwell explained, "Did you know him?" Maxwell pointed at the grave they sat infront of.

The man looked at the smooth stone, all happiness drained from his face and replaced with the sadness that he been there before Maxwell had arrived.

The man shrugged a little and looked at the boy, "Did you?"

The child shook his head, "No, but we learn about him in school."

"Do you?" The man asked curiously, "Do you mind telling me what you learn?"

The boy made a face, "I don't like school."

The man chuckled, "I never did like school either, I only went for one reason. But I do not intend to grade your information, I am only curious, I am newly arrived on this small planet."

"Oh." Well, that made sense then, to ask for information, "I guess I can tell you."

"I would be glad for that." The man said. 

Maxwell wrinkled his nose, the man had a funny way of speaking, like those movies made ages ago or movies that were set in a certain time period. Maxwell found it slightly annoying because he had to rearrange the words to make sense to him.

"Well, I guess I can start with him." Maxwell pointed at the grave, "He was America's 50th president, back when this country was still called America, I think this was where the first Alien Aircraft ever crashed down, but I don't remember, I know that he has an entire area of land that he was supposed to share with his family after they came back from Mars, only they didn't and no one ever found enough of their bodies to bury." The boy explained, not paying much attention teo the man's reactions and then continued, "We learned that his father was a really bad man, he experimented and torture those that survived that crash, the President had hm tried for inhuman treatment of prisoners and he killed himself in prison. The President then created a treaty and an open invitation to people from outerspace. He wrote several books on how to treat and greet these beings, some of them are still used today."

The boy finally looked over at the man he was with, the man looked even more sad than before if that was possible and Maxwell didn't know what to say.

"Why do you think he bothered?" The man asked softly gazing down at the worn, ancient stone before them.

The child shrugged, "I don't know, back them most people didn't even think lif eon other planets existed and he faced a lot of resistance, so the history books say, and we watched some of the first contacts, he was always there to greet the new arrivals, even after his terms were over, I watched his face everytme the arrival was revealed, he always looked diappointed, I mean he never showed it for more than a second or two but it was there." 

The man turned to look at him, "Why do you think that was?"

The boy stared at the man, "I think that he was waiting for someone to come back, that he did all he did for one very specific being from outerspace, that he was waiting for their return, only he died before they came back and never got to see them again."

The man turned away and carefully placed the roses in front of the grave, first kissing each individual rose, before he stood up from the ground, knarled and ruined hand tracing over the carved name one last time before placing one last kiss to his fingers before transfering t to the stone.

The boy stood up as well.

"Thank you for your information, Maxwell." The man said.

"You're welcome, sir." Maxwell said.

The man began to leave before he paused and turned back to the child.

"You asked me if I knew him." He said.

"Yeah." Max well said, "Did you?"

"No, not as the man he became anyway." The man paused, glanced at the lonely grave, inscribed with a name that never belonged to the man buried, "I knew the boy he was, loved him then, like astronauts love the stars, reaching for them and never being granted them, I kissed him under false stars, in the darkness and in secrecy, I wanted him so much but not enough to stay, not enough to be happy with what he could give then. I left, I left him thinking he'd still be right where I left him, that they all would be right here in Roswell, where I left them." 

The man looked at the boy who hardly dared to breath as this man spoke, this man who had only ever been a tale told in passing, a name spoken of in both mourning and hope, the man that had never been married but was claimed as a husband to a man long dead.

"You asked if I knew them, child, but it does not matter, they are dead now." The man said and then he continued away, eaving the child alone.

The child, known by the name of Maxwell Alex DeLuca, turned to look at the silent stone that rested alone and unattended for the most part, he wondered what the man buried once called the man who left him, surely the man had once had another name beside the one that was always spoken, the one the once president had stolen from him.

'Alex Guerin', Maxwell LeLuca read, the carved lines of his name faded and worn with age not caresses, 'Friend, brother, husband in heart', not son, not father, those words were not present on the old stone, never had been, and beneath that were words that now one had ever really understood, 'I never look away.' and 'We're Cosmic, I will find you again.'

And the boy stared at the words, the message that had been written long ago for a man that may never have returned and he hoped that one day, one day those words would prove true, that one day Alex Guerin would find the man he'd waited a lifetime to see again, who he had changed the world for, and Maxwell thought how sad it was that it would only happen in the next life and not this one, it would have been amazing to see them together, to see a smile that reached President Guerin's eyes as he greeted each interplanetary arrival with a husband by his side.

Maxwell could almost see it in his mind's eye, how it could have been, should have been but wasn't.

Maxwell supposed that the man who'd left, Guerin, had been right, it did not matter they were dead now.

\-------

A/n: Woops. I was thinking about how Michael wanted to leave and then I thought what if the Planet they were on had a lot to do with how they aged, it makes sense that they might adapt to fit in, so when Michale leaves he adapts and stops aging, time is a social construct that depends on our planetary rotation on it's axis and around the sun, it stands to reason that Aliens capible of interplanetary travel might not have the same way of tracking time, therefore once Michael does reach his home planet he does not realize how long it has been and since he doesn't age he thinks nothing of it but when the chance to go along t=with a diplomatic adventure to Earth comes he decides to go back intending on asking Alex to come back with him as his mate only to discover just how many years have passed for Earth. Comes to find that the family he left behind is long dead and only one of them has a grave on Earth's surface.

He goes to see Alex and to apoogize for leaving.

Max Liz, Isobel, and Kyle all go off to try colonizing Mars, something happens and the entire team is lost, not enough left to consider even a retreaval of their bodies and when they try again decades later there is nothing left at all. Alex creates a memorial for them and the others lost to the attempt and mourns in privacy for the main part, he and Maria are now the only ones left that truely remember Michael. Maria eventually has a few children, unmarried though even married she'd hav einsisted they have her name and each one of her children keeps that name, they know the reason is so that if Michael does retue=rn he can find them, find some one that might know of him.

Maxwell as the oldest of his generation inherited the names that all the first borns recieve, his Aunt, the first of her generation bares the names Isobel Elizabeth, and though the names are sometimes flipped, Maxwell being the middle name and Alex the first they are always given to the first child born in their family, sometimes the name Kyle and Michael are snuck in for variety but not often.

This also takes place in a world where Max did not heal Michael's hand and Rosa is still dead, sorry.


End file.
